Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be very brief and will just ask two questions. The National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, is in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Is there good co-operation between the service and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine? I do not expect the officials to answer this but I will put the question anyway: should that service really be under the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine? There is major conflict between the two Departments. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine wants to do one thing and the NPWS wants to do something else. I have had experience of the NPWS, as have other Members, in relation to the way it operates. The NPWS has a different agenda from that of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. As a few people have said here this evening, €25 million is a lot of taxpayers' money. It is taxpayers' money because Ireland is now a net contributor to the EU so there is no funding coming from the European Union. It is the Irish taxpayer who pays for this, along with the farmers. It is the taxpayer at the end of the day who is paying for it.

I am a long time in this Oireachtas and for 25 years we have talked about TB. We have had Covid now for one year and there is already a vaccination for it. Why can we not do something with TB? Why is there not something there that can get rid of it? Is there a vested interest? There are so many groups that get money out of TB, why would they ever want it to be gone?